This invention relates to the field of medical treatment involving blood transfusions and the use of blood expanders or substitutes. The description provided herein is provided solely to assist the understanding of the reader. None of the information provided or references cited is admitted to be prior art to the present invention.
A variety of blood substitutes or plasma expanders have been described. Commonly blood substitutes are perfluorocarbon-based emulsions, liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin, or modified hemoglobin.
Also described is a blood substitute which specifically includes both oxygen-carrying and non-oxygen-carrying plasma expanders (Winslow & Intaglietta, U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,601). Typically the oxygen-carrying component is a modified hemoglobin and the non-oxygen-carrying component is a starch.